The rise of the tablet is one of the biggest trends in computing today and there's little reason to doubt that this trend won't get anything but stronger.

The new iPad smashed sales records, affordable tablets with rich content ecosystems like the Kindle Fire are helping bring these devices to the masses, and Intel is promising a slew of new tablets when Windows 8 is released later this year.

With more and more television viewers turning to sites like Twitter to weigh in on what they're watching at any given moment, it's no surprise that social media is attracting the focus of content creators and television networks.

But it's also attracting the attention of startups looking to capitalize on the opportunities created by a world in which the consumption of television content increasingly involves two screens.

A mere decade ago, the water cooler was still the ideal place to discuss the movie you saw over the weekend or the TV show you watched last night. But with the rise of social media, the water cooler is, for many viewers, online.

When it comes to talking about the latest happenings on the big screen and the small screen, connected devices are creating an entirely new dynamic, one in which viewers talk about the content they're consuming with large audiences in real-time.